Stories from a real life cowpuncher that will give you a smile and a glimpse of God.

Ridin’ What Couldn’t Be Rode (From the Archives)

by Kevin on January 11, 2012

A friend of mine told me a story about going up to North Dakota to work on a ranch. He told me that they had the biggest horses he had ever seen, much less ridden. One his first morning on the new ranch, there was about a foot of snow and all the cowboys were talking about what a nice day it was. He said it was the coldest morning he had ever seen.

“The sun shines up there,” he told me. “But it doesn’t make any heat.”

A horse was picked out for him and he was scared that his cinch would not be long enough to go around the massive horse. He had to let everything out to the last hole and then poked a few more. When he was finally done adjusting his saddle for riding mammoths, he climbed on the horse. This horse had shown no inclination to turn psychotic, but that’s exactly what it did the moment he hit the saddle. He assumed that such a large animal would be slow and lumbering. You know what happens when you assume things.

This horse bucked him off in two jumps and broke him into three pieces. He fancied himself a pretty good bronc rider and he had just embarrassed himself the very first morning. He then thought about it and figured since no one else was mounted yet, there must have been some trick. They probably played this joke on all the new hands. They probably had this horse that could buck off nearly anyone, but stood still and gentle as a baby until you got on. He thought to himself that there probably wasn’t one of these cowboys that could have rode that horse either.

The boss walked up to him and told him that they had given him the gentle horse because he was new. My friend thought that if this was a gentle horse, he would hate to see what they called an outlaw.

Well, the boss had to literally leap into the air just to get his foot in the stirrup. As soon as his foot hit the stirrup, the boss’ horse bucked harder than my friend’s horse had. The boss still wasn’t even in the saddle, but climbed up there like a spider monkey, despite the NFR worthy pitching his horse was doling out. As the boss continued the ride, he turned around and looked my friend right in the eye.

My friend couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He had never seen a horse buck that hard and with a rider that climbed on while the horse was pitching. Not only that, but he had turned around and stared a hole through him during the entire ride. A very humbling experience to say the least.

While the horse was still bucking, he looked at my friend and said, “I won’t ever ask you to do something I can’t do myself. So get on that horse and don’t come off again.”

The Horse Called “Law”

There was a horse that God sent down to all of us that could not be ridden. This horse was called the Law. It was written on stone tablets and it was what God expected us to do to become holy. Well, the Law sure was holy and we proved time and time again that we aren’t up to those kind of standards.

The Law was the horse that none could ride. The only kicker was, you had to try to ride this horse every moment of your life. This was the way to God. Ride the horse–be right with God. Fall of the horse–you aren’t right with God. Kind of sounds unfair, but God is perfection and if we want to be like Him, there had to be some standards.

These standards were beyond us though. Then he sent down his Son to ride the horse that we couldn’t ride. Why? So we could be made right with God. In other words, Jesus rode the horse, we get the credit. All he asks in return is that we love him and trust him. Doesn’t sound too bad to me.

If you want something that will last for eternity, only look for Jesus. He has already ridden your impossible horse, now all you have to do is thank him for it.

ten little rules…..and we couldn’t follow them. Good thing Jesus was there to save our skins! Coming from Texas, I hate to admit it…but horses are bigger up north. Must have something to do with all that snow they get!